A powerful magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday (July 30), generating a tsunami of up to 4 metres, prompting evacuations and damaging buildings, officials said.
"Today's earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors," Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app. He added that according to preliminary information there were no injuries, but a kindergarten was damaged.
A tsunami with a height of 3-4 metres was recorded in parts of Kamchatka, Sergei Lebedev, regional minister for emergency situations said, urging people to move away from the shoreline of the peninsula.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3km, and was centred about 125km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 along the coast of Avacha Bay. It revised the magnitude up from 8.0 earlier.
The Japan Weather Agency upgraded its warning, saying it expected tsunami waves of up to three metres to reach large coastal areas starting around 0100 GMT (9am in Singapore time). Broadcast NHK said evacuation orders had been issued by the government for some areas.
@asiaone Scenes of the first waves reaching Japan’s port city of Hokkaido after tsunami warnings were issued this morning (July 30) following an 8.7 magnitude earthquake in Russia. Japanese media outlet NHK reported that a 30 centimeter wave was recorded in Erimo town in the southeastern part of Hokkaido. The highest wave - 50cm - was recorded at Ishinomaki port in Miyagi prefecture. #news #Japan #hokkaido #Tsunami ♬ original sound - AsiaOne
The US Tsunami Warning System also issued a warning of "hazardous tsunami waves" within the next three hours along some coasts of Russia, Japan and Hawaii. A tsunami watch was also in effect for the US island territory of Guam and other islands of Micronesia.
An evacuation order for the small town of Severo-Kurilsk, south of the peninsula, was declared due to the tsunami threat, Sakhalin Governor Valery Limarenko said on Telegram.
Kamchatka and Russia's Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
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